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Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was captured in Afghanistan in 2003, when he was 15. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, and is accusing the United States of torturing him in accordance with the Al Qaeda playbook. His lawyers have released a few minutes of video of his interrogation – a selection from about seven hours of video they received from the military. I assume these are the most damning clips they could come up with, and they are entirely unremarkable. Interrogations being conducted in American police stations every day are much harsher.
Here’s the NY Times puff piece on it, notable for what they don’t say as much as what they do:
The video footage, which provides the most extensive videotaped images yet seen from inside Guantánamo Bay, shows Mr. Khadr pleading with a Canadian intelligence agent for help and, at one point, shows him displaying chest and back wounds that had still not healed months after his capture in Afghanistan.
… In the film, Mr. Khadr, who had been shot and was near death at the time of his capture in Afghanistan, repeatedly complains about his medical treatment and his physical condition. At one point, he lifts his shirt to show the agent the wounds on his back and stomach that were still not healed.
The video quality is poor, but no bandages, no red areas of skin or anything that even vaguely looks like a wound. He claims the wounds were not healed and the NY Times happily parrots that accusation. Judge for yourself:
The caption on the photo in the NYT reads, ” Omar Khadr, a Canadian, in a photo from before he was imprisoned in 2002 at the age of 15.” You have to get to the fifth paragraph before you learn that this Canadian was in Afghanistan, and the twelfth before you discover that he was shot in battle there.
The NY Times article reads like a press release from this young man’s lawyers, but the Al Jazeerah news clip offers a great deal more information about his background, including the fact that one of his brothers is in jail in Canada, fighting extradition for “conspiring to kill US forces in Afghanistan,” another brother was also at Gitmo but was released, and his father was an alleged al Qaeda financier. He was killed in a shootout with Pakistan’s military.
The lawyers hope releasing the video will “shame” Canada into asking for his release, but I don’t see anything shameful about it. The German prisoners of war held in the camp where my grandmother volunteered in WWII had worse living conditions, no legal recourse, and no hope of being released while the war continued – and they were lawful, uniformed combatants.
From the New York Times article -
Later, a sobbing Mr. Khadr said: “You don’t care about me.”
Well, that much is certainly true.
Added: More on torture.
Added: MM has more, including a link to a WaPo article which is a lot better than the NYT puff piece.
Retired Sgt. 1st Class Layne Morris, 46, a Special Forces soldier who was injured in the firefight at the Afghanistan compound where Khadr was captured, said Tuesday that the release of the interrogation video is a “pathetic attempt at manipulating public opinion.”
“That’s not just a 16-year-old boy snapped up off the streets,” said Morris, who lost sight in his right eye when he was hit by shrapnel. “This is a demonstrated, hardened killer who is not happy with his new perspective on life, which is that he’s going to be spending a long, long time in U.S. custody.”
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